This invention relates generally to apparatus and method for pressing the sleeves of a long sleeve shirt and more particularly, to apparatus and method capable of pressing the sleeves, the pleats and the adjacent areas of the sleeves just above the cuffs during the same pressing operation.
The sleeve of a standard long sleeved shirt is manufactured with a pleat just above the cuff on the outside edge of the shirt while wearing it. This pleat is present due to the fact that the sleeve diameter is larger than the cuff diameter causing the gathering of the material, hence the pleat.
Machines for pressing the sleeves of a shirt are commercially available such as the cabinet style bag sleever Model CSL which has been manufactured and sold by the assignee of this invention, Hoffman-New Yorker, Inc. and which is generally illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,716 B1 which is commonly owned by Hoffman-New Yorker, Inc. As illustrated in that patent, those machines generally include a pair of laterally spaced, vertically extending, sleeve bucks with inflatable air bags attached to the front and rear faces of the bucks. At the upper end of each of the bucks is a pneumatically operated T-clamp for holding the cuffs of the shirt in place during a sleeve pressing operation. To press the sleeves, at an accessible loading station, with the back of the shirt facing an operator, the operator passes the shoulders of the shirt over the cuff clamps and the shirt is fully extended downwardly with the sleeves over the bucks. The cuffs of the shirt are positioned under the open T-clamps and the clamps are then closed to lock the cuffs in place with the pleats of the shirt resting against the rear face of the bucks. Low pressure air is then supplied to the air bags to expand the sleeve cavity and remove wrinkles from the sleeves, and the shirt is then tensioned to define the pleats. The bucks are then moved from the loading station to a pressing station within a pressing cabinet and movable steam heated pressing heads are then applied against the sleeves and the bucks for a predetermined period of time under the control of a timer. Upon completion of the timed cycle, the bucks are returned from the pressing cabinet to the loading station and upon movement out of the cabinet the clamps are automatically opened thereby releasing the cuffs. The sleeves and the shirt are then removed upwardly from the bucks. This is generally the manner in which the apparatus illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,716 is operated.
When the shirt is removed from the press, the pleat is then pressed by a secondary operation separate from the machine and is normally performed on an ironing board with a hand iron.
It certainly is desirable to be able to press the pleats on the sleeve of the shirt during the same sleeve pressing operation, and thereby eliminate the separate manual pleat pressing operation. This would provide a more efficient, reliable and economical machine and would save substantial time and labor associated with the overall pressing operation.
While the CSL machine illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,497,060 has enjoyed substantial commercial success, applicants have recognized the need to improve the construction and operation of that machine and the invention as described below was developed to satisfy that need.